Phoenix Inspirations

I have been in my craft room all day today playing - you will get to see what I have been working on at a later date. However what I can show you is the little friend keeping me company - take a look He comes in so often now that he has his own cushion permanently in place! He's no trouble - I just have to make sure that when he jumps up and starts his journey to his cushion he doesn't leave dirty paw prints all over my work! He has changed a lot over the last couple of years - take a look at his first foray into my study just after we had had him See you tomorrow xx

Next Tuesday (10th) is the start of my workshops for 2012 and we will be kicking off with a Perforated Bookmark Card. Intrigued?..... take a look The panel on the right hand side of the card is perforated and can be removed to use as a bookmark. A nice easy project I think to start the New Year! It uses a combination of stamp sets - Simply Soft, Precious Butterflies and Butterfly Prints all on top of a brayered background. As always a step by step tutorial will be available after the workshop and details will appear in my side bar should you wish to have a go at making this yourself. I have a little friend hiding behind my laptop as I type this post - would you like to see him? He's sulking because I have taken the Christmas decorations down and he can no longer play Tarzan on the tinsel!! See you soon - Jacqueline xx

This week at  Less is More  the theme is Silhouettes and as my Christmas Tree stamps were already out from yesterday I decided to use them for this card - take a look I masked off a square in the centre of the card with post it notes and made a moon from the post it notes too. After the landscape was sponged with black ink the trees were added - I stamped them twice before re-inking to create a feeling of distance. The snowflakes were stamped randomly at the two corners and clear gems were added to the middles. The finishing touch was using a black fine liner to frame the picture. Speaking of silhouettes - this is a picture I took earlier of my cat on my son's shoulder. It's not what I wanted but it makes a great silhouette!! Jacqueline xx

When I first got this Clarity Stamp this is the card that I wanted to make, it's also the reason I designed the tree stamp that is also used on the card This is a one layer card - it's all created using masks and post it notes and is inspired by the cards created by Barbara Gray on Create and Craft. The sentiment was first stamped and embossed, it was then stamped onto a piece of copy paper and the centre of the O was removed. This is then placed over the sentiment on the card and the scene stamped through it. Post it notes were then used to cover the whole sentiment and the scene was continued around the edges. The landscape was created by ripping scrap copy paper and sponging. The trees were stamped twice before re-inking to give a feeling of depth and perspective. The white space around the sentiment was outlined with a black fine liner to make it stand out. Our cat Louis has found a new place to sleep ...... in the coal scuttle!! I managed to take a couple of pics o...

This week Mandi and Chrissie have challenged us to use the colours Red and Orange over on  Less is More . So this morning - trying to ignore the gloomy weather outside I made a card using my faithful Poppy stamp. I coloured the flowers in using Poppy Parade and Peach Parfait Stampin' Write markers and then did some sponging with a little Tangerine Tango. The sentiment is from the retired set Bird on a Branch. I had a friend helping me this morning - Louis my cat decided to join me but spent most of his time on the window sill watching the birds on the bird table. He also got very excited when he spied a squirrel running down the path You can't see it in this picture but he was muttering very angrily at that squirrel! - bye for now - Jacqueline xx

Hello - where is all the time going this week - it seems to be rushing by at great speed. I'll tell you something - I haven't stopped still long this week so far either. I've been up to my eyes in workshops, stamp making and dt work - not that I don't love it  I'm having a whale of a time, just wish I had a little time to stop and catch my breath! I'm so grateful that I am so busy, there have been times in my life when I have been very low but discovering crafting and blogging and meeting all my crafty friends on line has been quite a life saver. Anyway I made loads of new stamps this week but didn't have chance to put them up on the web site as I sold most of them at a workshop I took on Tuesday night. As soon as I have made more - you will be the first to know. I have managed a bit of crafting for no reason other than to craft and came up with this This is a one layer card made by stamping and masking. I drew a feint frame in pencil and then started by...

It's taken me most of the day to complete this card - Louis (our 10 week old kitten) has discovered my craft room. I've tried to keep the door closed but 9 times out of 10 he's darted in before you can blink. take a look Yes - he is licking my ruler! Any way he is asleep now so I am able to show you the card that I finally got finished. It features my new set Growing  Green this time stamped on to water colour paper with a black Versa Fine ink pad The images have been coloured in using water colour pencils and then blended with an aqua painter. We did cards like this last night at my monthly workshop - I used my new 2 Step owl punch that time, but that as they say is another story! See you again soon - Jacqueline xx

Did you miss me? I've been away for nearly a week and I am suffering from crafting withdrawal symptoms. I have done a little crafting (lots to catch up on) and I thought that I might play the What's on your Workdesk Wednesday game again. I used to play along a while ago but this morning on opening the craft room door I was greeted with THE most untidy desk ever and I thought that I would photograph it and show you all! I really have surpassed myself! The iron works so much better in my craft room than it does with my clothes (hee hee) and today it is not only hiding a DT piece I'm working on but flattening it too - I was doing some embossing and the whole thing curled up. I've also been working on some ATCs so there are loads of scraps littering the desk too. Today is also the day that we have had Louis for two weeks and to celebrate I bought him a scratching pole. It's not that he is damaging the furniture oh no - it's my legs! I think he likes it. WOYWW c...

I have had such a busy time recently - I've been taking part in a local festival (a bit like Glastonbury but without the horrible music and mud!!!!!). I had a stall selling my cards and paper crafted gifts and boy did I melt underneath my tent - phew! But I also took part in something else rather special. The theme of the festival was Masquerade and the local art group decided to take a picture of some masks, blow it up, divide it into 24 separate square and each member paint a square. They also asked local artists (me!) to contribute too. Here is how I started and here is how it finished The whole painting when it was unveiled looked like this If you look along the top row, second from the left - that's mine! It was great fun to do. Now I'm sorry - no cards to show you today. The reason is this little monster This cute little fur ball is Louis - my daughter (who is leaving for uni in but a few short weeks) decided to bring him home last week. Now we live in a tiny,...